Fauquier County Tapscotts – The Genetic Line, James E. Tapscott

In the past, we have had some questions and doubts about the origins of the Fauquier County Tapscotts and whether DNA could confirm as a progenitor Elizabeth Percifull and, for some, James E. Tapscott (Fauquier County Tapscotts, Tapscotts and DNA Testing, DNA Testing Once Again). Note that I always use the term “Fauquier County Tapscotts” to mean anyone descended from ancestors who had the name “Tapscott” and who lived in Fauquier County in the first half of the 1800s. I do not mean only people who still bear the Tapscott name. I have recently had a number of breakthroughs that provide exceedingly strong DNA evidence indicating that at least some present-day Fauquier County Tapscotts do indeed have as ancestors both James and Elizabeth, and also that some have as an ancestor Elizabeth, but not James. The DNA results are too complicated to publish as a blog at this time, but perhaps they can be combined and simplified sufficiently to allow blogging in the future. But now we can comfortably claim that some Fauquier County Tapscotts are descended from Henry the Immigrant through his great grandson James and James's wife, Elizabeth.

James E. Tapscott (could that be James “Edney” Tapscott?) was the only son of Ezekiel Tapscott. He was also the grandson of Edney and Judith Purcell Tapscott and the great grandson of Henry Tapscott, the Immigrant, and his wife, Ann Edney. The histories of James's antecedents are detailed in the book Henry the Immigrant, The First Tapscotts of Virginia. James was not the source of genes for all the Fauquier Tapscotts, but he was certainly the source of their name.

When Ezekiel died around 1799, James’s uncle John Tapscott Sr. was made guardian for him and his sister Harriott by a Lancaster Co, Virginia, court. Following the 1807 death of his first guardian, James's estate was transferred to John Cundiff Jr., who had been chosen by James as his new guardian on 16 January of that year. Thus, in 1807 James was over 14, since he had chosen his guardian, but was not yet 21, since he had a guardian. James had been born between 1786 and 1793. We will take 1790 as his approximate birth year.

You may have remembered seeing the name “Cundiff” before. James’s second guardian was the uncle of Richard Cundiff, initiator of Elizabeth Percifull’s fall from grace. Or perhaps we should say Richard Cundiff, Elizabeth’s first conquest.

James Tapscott’s lineage, and that of his Fauquier Co. descendants. Most spouses have been omitted from this chart. See Henry the Immigrant, the First Tapscotts of Virginia for details and sources. The direct male line to the Fauquier Tapscotts is shown in yellow.

James’s story thus far has been pre-Elizabethan. Our next blog will be about James’s post-Elizabethan era, starting with his marriage to Elizabeth.

Fauquier County Tapscotts – Telem and Peggy’s Final Three

I wish it were the “Final Four,” which is more alliterative and sporty. But there are just three additional children of Telem and Peggy to biograph. I have saved them until last since they led lives lacking drama and left no known descendants. And be careful about my use of the phrase "Final Three," which refers to the last three we are looking at, not the birth order. (Though the two are close. See Telem and Peggy.)

William Tapscott

Born in May 1850 and a laborer, William (“Billy”) led a rather unexciting life. He was single until about age 45 (41, according to the marriage record), when on 21 Oct 1895 in Fauquier Co, he married Mildred Smith. Mildred, was the 39-year-old widow of George A. Smith. Born c1852 to Harrison Smith, George had died of consumption on 7 Jan 1890 in Greenville, an African-American community that no longer exists, located between Marshall and Nokesville in Fauquier County. Mildred died soon after she and William were married. In the 1900 census, William was listed as widowed and was living with his brother Robert in Cedar Run Twp. He is not seen again. No evidence is found to indicate that either William or Mildred had any descendants.

Maggie Tapscott

Telem and Peggie’s last daughter was likely named “Margaret” but she is seen only as “Maggie” in two Fauquier County censuses, first as a child in 1860 with her parents and then in 1870 with some of her siblings following her parents’ deaths. Her ages in the two census records correspond to widely different birthyears, c1853 and c1849. We will use c1851 as her birthyear. Maggie is found in no additional records, probably owing to either an early death or to marriage with a name change.

George Tapscott

George, the final known child of Telem and Margaret, was probably born around 1853, an average from two Fauquier County census records. In 1870 George was a farm worker while living with his sister Nancy. George died in Fauquier County 9 Oct 1878 around age 25, still unmarried. He is said to have died of dyspepsia, but that is unlikely. He may, however, have died from whatever was causing the dyspepsia. George had no known descendants.

If I am wrong about no descendants of the final three (or anything else), please let me know.

And this ends our tale of the Coachman’s descendants, at least the early ones. This blog has named 47 early descendants and 32 spouses of those descendants. But my admittedly incomplete database has a total of 180 Plato descendants and 101 spouses. Some of them are among you readers and some will be attending this year’s Tapscott Family Reunion.

What we have seen so far, the Cundiff and Plato lines, are Tapscotts in name only (excluding some mixed-line descendants, of which there are probably many). Coming up next are genetic Tapscotts, descendants who inherited both the Tapscott name and the Tapscott genes.

Fauquier County Tapscotts - Nancy M. Tapscott

Nancy’s marker. (Find a Grave)

Telem and Margaret's daughter Nancy is first seen at age 14 (b c1846) in 1860 as a “Pearson” with her parents and siblings in what would become Cedar Run Distr. In 1870, she is found living in Cedar Run with four children, Hampton, Virginia (“Jennie”), Warner, and Margaret, all presumed to be her offspring. A fifth child, Robert Lee, born after the 1870 census, is also believed to be a child of Nancy because he is found in a later census living with Hampton, who is designated as his brother. Though all the children except Robert are found in the 1870 census living with their mother and having the name “Tapscott,” later in life they all used the name “Chichester.” And the reason may be obvious. They appear to have all been fathered by William Doddridge Chichester, a white neighbor, who we have seen before.

Nancy died on 14 Nov 1877 and was buried in Poplar Forks Baptist Church Cemetery with the name “Nancy M. Chichester.” Her marker has the oldest death date in the cemetery. Following Nancy’s death, her five children all moved to the District of Columbia, and later some moved on to Philadelphia. Many of her descendants were, or were married to, dressmakers and waiters.

Idlewile Hotel and Resort, 1897, where
Hampton worked. (Wikimedia Commons.)

The name of Nancy’s oldest child, Hampton, who was born around 1864, is shown with the middle initial “H” in a single record and with the name “Wade” in two city directories. That he was given the name “Hampton Wade” or converse is difficult to believe since Wade Hampton III (1818-1902) was an infamous slave-owning South Carolina plantation owner and politician who served as a Confederate general during the Civil War and had KKK connections during reconstruction. Hampton Chichester was living in DC as early as 1880, and lived there until at least 1899, at times with his brothers Warner and Robert Lee, his first cousin Robert J. Tapscott, son of Ann Virginia, and his second cousin James Tasco Tapscott, son of Cordelia. Around 1887, Hampton married a Virginia-born woman who we know only by her given name, “Alice E.” Around 1900 Hampton and Alice moved to Philadelphia, where for the next 25 years Hampton worked as head waiter at the Idlewild Hotel, near Media, Pennsylvania. Following Hampton’s sudden death on 3 Aug 1925 from a heart attack, the owner of the hotel said “We have lost a valuable man. He was esteemed by the patrons of the house.” Born around 1870, Alice had died five years earlier than Hampton, on 3 Jan 1920 in Philadelphia. Hampton and Alice left no known children.

Virginia Chichester, Nancy’s second child, was probably born around 1864, although birthyears calculated from Virginia’s age in various records vary widely. By 1885 Jennie, the name she often used, was living in DC and sewing for a living. Three years later, in DC, Virginia married William J. Lewis, a hotel waiter, born in Virginia in January 1860. The couple had two children, William J. Lewis Jr. and Genevieve Lee Lewis. William Sr. died 4 Jan 1933 and Virginia died 10 Jan 1939, both in DC.

Born c1866, Warner Crain Chichester moved to DC, where he married Marian B. Hunter in 1888. The couple had a single child, Carl Hampton Chichester, but Warner died quite young. After being judged a “lunatic” in 1894, Warner died around age 29 in DC on 17 Jul 1895, "after a long and painful illness". Marian, who remarried, died 30 Apr 1843 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Margaret (“Maggie”) M. Chichester, born c1867, ended up in DC like the rest of her siblings, and it may have been while living there that she married Andrew J. Corum. Born in January 1866,  Andrew’s middle name was likely “John” since he and Margaret had a son Andrew John Corum Jr. The Corums had at least twelve children, most of whom died young. On 1 Apr 1920, 21-year-old Andrew Jr. was shot to death by his fiancé "because he refused to keep his promise to marry her." Frances Spinner, the fiancé, was sentenced to 20 years in the penitentiary. Andrew Sr. died in DC on 31 Jul 1932, and Margaret died there on 17 Jan 1939, just a week after her sister Virginia had passed.

Nancy’s final known child, Robert Lee Chichester, was born in Fauquier County, probably on 28 Oct 1872, though his death certificate gives a year of 1875. In 1889 and 1890 he was living on DC with brothers, but by 1900 he was in Philadelphia. It was there that, on 2 Oct 1905, he married Estelle Freeman. The couple had one known offspring, Catherine, born c1911. Catherine is seen in only one record and apparently died as a child. Robert died on 22 Apr 1946 in Philadelphia. Estelle, who had been born in Philadelphia on 6 Oct 1873, died there on 14 Dec 1963. There is some evidence that Robert and Estelle did quite well financially, but that is another story.

Fauquier County Tapscotts - Elizabeth, Daughter of Telem and Peggy

One wonders if Elizabeth, daughter of Telem and Peggy, was named after her grandmother,  the progenitor of Fauquier County Tapscotts, Elizabeth Percifull Tapscott. 

Elizabeth first appears as 12-year-old “Elizabeth Pearson,” with her parents in the 1860 census and as 22-year-old “Elizabeth Tapscott” in the 1870 census for Cedar Run, where she is living with her brother Robert, and some other siblings, following the death of their parents. Then in 1880, she is seen as “Lizzie Tapscot,” living in the town of Warrenton. And she is said to be married, but where is her husband? In 1900, with a date of birth given as Feb 1848, Lizzie Tapscott is back in Cedar Run, where she now widowed with two children, William J. Tapscott and Mason Tapscott. But the record gives William’s and Mason’s birth dates as February 1870 and July 1874. Why then do they not appear in the 1880 census with Elizabeth? With a little work, we can find William, who, in 1880 at age 9, was a servant in a Fauquier County household. Perhaps, Elizabeth “farmed him out” so she could work elsewhere. But there is still no sign of Mason in 1880.

Gertrude Tapscott (posted on Ancestry
 by prestonmcleecarterbell.)

The 1900 census claims that Elizabeth is the mother of three living children. The third, it turns out, was Gertrude H. Tapscott, who married Hamilton Preston on 26 Jun 1889 in Fauquier Co and, when Hamilton died around 1907, married James Lewis Jasper in DC on 13 Sep 1911. The record of the first marriage gives Gertrudes’s mother as Elizabeth and her father as William, with no last name. Like her brother Mason, Gertrude, who was born in June 1873, should have appeared in the 1880 census, but did not.

Gertrude died in DC around 11 Sep 1912, leaving seven children. Her second husband, James, born 3 Jun 1875, died in DC on 14 Sep 1946.

Records provide a range of birth years for Mason Tapscott with an average of about 1875. Around 1900, Mason Tapscott married “Anna” (c1882–c1919) and had six known children. Mason is last seen as a widower in 1920, in Ellicott City, Maryland.

We have no idea of what became of Elizabeth’s son, William J. Tapscott. He is last seen living with his mother and his brother, Mason, in the 1910 census for the Cedar Run Distr.

Elizabeth died sometime between 1920, when she appears in the census for Cedar Run Distr, and 1930, when she is found in no census. 

Birthday gathering for Elizabeth Tapscott, who is seated directly behind the cake, c1920. Her grandson, William Mason Preston Sr., son of Gertrude and Hamilton Preston, is standing directly behind her. (Courtesy of Lisa Preston.)

I know that there are some descendants of Elizabeth out there and I am hoping to hear from you. Let me know of errors, disagreements, etc. And if you know anything about where Mason and Gertrude were at the time of the 1880 census or what became of William J., please let me know. And while we are at it, who was Gertrude’s father, William? There have been a multitude of guesses about William, but that is all they seem to be. Does anyone have proof of or at least evidence about William’s identity?

Fauquier County Tapscotts - Rodolph

Telem Plato/Tapscott and Margaret Pinn's fourth son, Rodolph, is found in records under a variety of names: “Rhodolph Tapsaco,” “Rodolph Topsico,” “Rudolph Topsico,” “Adolph Topsico,” “Rudolph Tapsico.” He went most often by the name “Rodolph Tapsico.” That he was illiterate made it impossible for him to check the spelling of his names in documents, and agents just wrote down what they thought they heard. One wonders if Rodolph tended to slur his probable name, “Tapscott,” the name eventually used by all his siblings. He is first seen as “Rodolph Pearson” with his parents in the 1860 census, where his age is given as 15, corresponding to a year of birth of about 1845, though other records show a variety of birthyears.

UACT Recruitment Poster (Wikimedia, public domain)

On 11 Jan 1865, Rodolph enlisted at Shelbyville, Tennessee, in the Union Army Colored Troops (UACT). Three months later, on 9 Apr 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, effectively ending the war. Rodolph was one of 179,000 black soldiers (10% of the Union troops) during the Civil War. Rodolph served until 7 Apr 1866, when he mustered out in Nashville, Tennessee.

Following his military service, Rodolph is next seen in 1870 in Golden Pond Pct, Trigg Co, Kentucky, working as furnace keeper. Then, on 3 Apr 1877, “Rhodolph Tapsaco” married Minta Banner in Pope Co, Illinois, where he would end up farming for almost forty years. In 1880 “Adolph Topsico” and Minta were living in Pope County with three children—Eli (b c1870), Louisa (b c1873), and Mary J. (b c1874), none of whom can be found in later records. Since the admittedly questionable ages indicate that the three children were born prior to Rodolph and Minta’s marriage, they may have been Minta’s children from an earlier relationship.

On 21 Dec 1891 in Pope County, a Thomas Degraffenried married “Liza Topsico,” who likely had a connection with Rodolph, though the connection is unknown.

Rodolph's marriage with Minta was short-lived. By 1900, “Rudolph Topsico” was a widower living in Pope County with a “Minnie Rice” and a “Tilda Fowler,” said to be his daughter and granddaughter, respectively. Unfortunately, Minnie’s and Tilda’s ages are not given, and like other possible descendants, they are not seen with any certainty again. By 1910, “Rudolph Tapsico” was living with “Mary M. Tapsico,” listed as his wife by a second marriage for both. They are claimed to have been married 12 years earlier, but that is very unlikely. Mary, born c1843 in Tennessee, was reported in 1910 to have two children, both living. Mary is not seen again.

Illinois Soldiers and Sailors Home, Quincy, Ill, 1906 postcard.

On 15 Jul 1914, “Rudolph Topsico,” was admitted to the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors Home in Quincy, Adams Co, Illinois. It was in Adams County that he died on 25 Sep 1914.

And this ends Rodolph's tale. He may well have left descendants, but who they are may never be determined.

Is a reader out there a descendant of Rodolph? Do you know of a descendant? If so, please let us know.

Fauquier County Tapscotts - Pinn Pals

We run into the Pinn/Penn/Pin family off and on while researching for our Fauquier Tapscott tale. Margaret (“Peggy”) Pinn married Telem Plato, the Coachman’s son. Amanda Pinn married William Tapscott, son of Phil. And, as we have just seen, Howard Pinn married Louisa Ford, daughter of Emily Ford, Mack Tapscott’s common-law wife. And there are other connections. This would be a good time to compile a short history of the Pinn family.

Many family historians, with a total lack of acceptable evidence (i.e., substantiation other than other people's trees, family tales by distant relatives, and wishful thinking) begin the Fauquier County Pinns with much earlier, and likely fictional, ancestors; however, we will start with a Pinn for which concrete evidence exists, Nancy. Nancy Pinn appears in the 1830, 1840, and 1850 Fauquier County censuses, but is not found thereafter. She apparently died before the 1860 census.

The 1830 census shows an older female, presumably Nancy, and eight younger family members, who were likely offspring, three males and five females. The 1840 census shows Nancy now with two males and three females. Apparently, some children had married, left home, and/or passed on. The 1850 census finally provides names for three of Nancy’s inferred children—27-year-old “Mandandy” (a misspelling for Amanda), 26-year-old Eli, and 30-year-old David, all given the surname name "Pin" in this particular record.

Based on her name, age, and census neighbors, it is likely that Margaret (“Peggy”) Pinn, who married Telem Tapscott, was also a child of Nancy, but had married too early to appear in the 1850 census with her mother. Margaret’s estimated birth year, 1815, would place her among the four girls aged ten through twenty-three in the 1830 census for Nancy. And in 1860, Margaret and her husband, Telem, were living in the Fauquier County Northeast Revenue District just twelve dwellings away from where her supposed siblings Eli and Amanda were living. Moreover, Margaret does not fit into the only other racially appropriate Pinn line living in Fauquier Co at the time, the Ashby’s District Pinns/Penns.

Several other Pinns can be identified in Fauquier County records as possible, even probable, offspring of Nancy, but since none appear to have had Tapscott connections, there is no need to spend (waste?) time finding evidence for their being in Nancy’s family. With one exception. In 1850 in the census for Turner’s District of Fauquier County was a Mary Pinn, b c1827, apparently working as a servant in the household of a rather well-to-do white farmer and slave owner, Briant Stephens. Tuner’s District was where Nancy and her family were living in 1850 and Mary Pinn’s age, 23 corresponding to a birth year c1827, is what we would expect for a child of Nancy. But there is something much more important. Mary had a child named Taylor Pinn. And Taylor Pinn was also the name of a child of Howard Pinn, Nancy’s grandson. It sounds like this somewhat unusual name might run in the family.

Of these five children we have now identified or evidenced, we already know a lot about Margaret, who married Telem Plato, and Amanda, who married William Tapscott.

Eli, who was born around 1822, lived his entire life in Fauquier County, working first as a laborer and later as a stone mason. No reliable record indicates that he ever married or had a significant marital-type relationship. Eli is seen in the 1880 Fauquier County census but is not found in the 1900 census.

Like Eli, David, who was born c1820, also has no known marriage, nor any known offspring. However, unlike his siblings, he has a known death date. A death register shows that he died of "dropsy" (edema) in Fauquier County on 1 Jan 1878. And the register also gives his parents as James and Nancy Pinn. Thus, we now know the name of the likely father of David and his siblings. Data for the children in the census records for Nancy Pinn's household indicate that James died around 1825.

And our final offspring, Nancy’s likely daughter Mary, seems to have died young. She is not found with certainty after 1850. Her son, Taylor, is found living with and possibly serving the Briant Stephens family without his mother in 1860 and 1870.

In addition to Nancy’s three inferred adult offspring, the 1850 census also names five children in Nancy's household, ranging in age from age one to age ten—Benson Pin, Howard Pin, Sarah Pin, and two unnamed infants, a boy and a girl. These were almost certainly grandchildren of Nancy, probably children of Amanda, Eli, and/or David. Except for Howard, none of these children can be identified with any certainty in later documents, so we will ignore them. A marriage record for Howard Pinn and Louisa Ford nicely identifies Amanda as being Howard's mother.

 

Other than missing people, of whom there are many, is this correct? Please let me know what you think.

Fauquier County Tapscotts - Mack

Born in Virginia around 1844, Telem and Margaret’s fifth child, Mack (also “Mac”), began cohabitating with Emily Ford around 27 Feb 1866. The two were never officially married, but we know the date that they first started living together from a 1904 record of divorce proceedings. Why a divorce when the two were not married? Because, they had a common-law marriage, with all the legal ramifications.

In his 1904 divorce suit, Mack claimed that Emily had deserted him three years earlier. In fact, it may have been slightly earlier since in 1900 Emily appears in census records for two different Fauquier County locations, one with Mack in Cedar Run and one with her daughter Louisa in Center Distr. Mack apparently expected her to come back and included her in his household for the 1900 census.

At least one witness thought that the age difference between Mack and Emily was part of their problem. Born in Virginia in 1831, Emily was considerably older than Mack. And she had three children, given the surname “Ford,” from an earlier relationship with an “Albert”–Louisa (b c1855), Josephine (b c1856), and Bell (b c1857). Bell was listed as female in one census and as male in another. And Bell may have been the female “Bell Bruin” who was a servant in Mack’s house in 1910.

On 30 Dec 1875 in Fauquier Co, Louisa Ford married Howard Pinn and left a large number of descendants. Those descendants are not Fauquier Co Tapscotts, but they are connected with them. Howard Pinn's mother, Amanda, was probably the sister of Margaret Pinn, Telem Plato's wife. If so, Telem and Margaret's children were first cousins once removed of Howard and Louisa's children. See Pinn Pals.

Court documents claim that the union between Mack and Emily had produced no children. At first this appears to be untrue since censuses show five family members of the right age to be children of Mack and Emily—Louisa (b c1871), Douglass (b c1874), Isaac (1 Mar 1875–3 Nov 1923), Emily (b Jan 1875), and Rudolph (also “Adolphus,” c1876–14 Jul 1917). All had the surname "Tapscott", and all were born during the time that Mack and Emily were living together. But perhaps these were Mack’s children from a different relationship. In fact, the death certificate for Isaac gives his father as Mack, but his mother as “Unknown,” even though Isaac grew up in a household in which Emily was a member. Of course, the Isaac was not the informant for the death certificate. Moreover, it would be surprising that Emily would name a daughter “Louisa,” when she already had a living daughter with that name.

No evidence has been found showing that any of Mack’s five known children left any descendants, even though two are known to have been married. Isaac had a wife “Mollie” while living in Rankin, Pennsylvania, and Rudolph married Alice Jones, in Lynbrook, New York, on 14 Jul 1917. The lives of Isaac and Rudolph are relatively well-documented, particularly that of Rudolph. In 1917 Rudolph was murdered in New York City, a crime that was reported in several newspapers. According to one article,

His skull crushed with an axe and his throat cut by a razor, the body of Rudolph Tapscott, a negro piano mover, was found in bed in a room of his basement apartment at 60 East 110th street by his wife, who the janitress of the building, early yesterday morning. The axe and razor were found beside the bed. Detectives of the Third Branch are looking for Tapscott’s assailant. whose name was given to them by the murdered man’s widow. The man and Tapscott, the woman said, were quarrelling when she left them earlier in the morning to do her work.

If the culprit was found, his name was never published in a newspaper.

Readers, am I wrong about Mack having no present-day descendants? Do you know of any? I don't.